Gallery: Top 10 CRED Stories

Shares in General Growth Properties Inc. jumped in August after shareholder William Ackman pressed the Chicago-based shopping mall owner to sell itself. But the shares fell back after General Growth, which owns Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue, rebuffed the activist investor and potential suitor Simon Property Group Inc. said it wasn't interested.

Los Angeles-based CIM Group paid $84 million in April for the Block 37 mall in the Loop. CIM bought the 305,000-square-foot property from Bank of America Corp., which had seized it from developer Joseph Freed & Associates LLC after a bruising foreclosure battle.

Lincoln Park Ald. Michelle Smith in August rejected a plan by Chicago-based McCaffery Interests Inc. to build a three-tower, mixed-use complex with 1,000 homes on the former Children's Memorial Hospital campus.

The local residential market rebounded in 2012, ending a six-year slump. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of Chicago-area single family home prices rose 4.3 percent through October, and sales of all local homes, including condominiums, rose 36 percent in November from a year earlier. It was the 17th straight monthly increase.

Deutsche Bank A.G. and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. sold off the retail space, antennas and observatory at the John Hancock Center after seizing the Michigan Avenue landmark from its prior owner, a Goldman Sachs-led venture that had defaulted on about $400 million in debt. Photo by Erik Unger

Google Inc.'s Motorola Mobility unit is moving more than 2,200 employees from Libertyville to downtown Chicago after signing a lease in July for 572,000 square feet in the Merchandise Mart, which is owned by New York-based Vornado Realty Trust. It was the biggest downtown office lease in seven years. Photo from CoStar Group Inc.

Houston-based Hines Interests L.P. in May announced plans to build a 45-story West Loop office tower without signing an anchor tenant first. The 900,000-square-foot tower at 444 W. Lake St. (rendering shown) is the first speculative, or "spec," office development in downtown Chicago since the 1990s.

A joint venture including Hines Interests L.P. and the Kennedy family in May unveiled plans for $1 billion, three-tower development on Wolf Point near the Merchandise Mart. After holding three community meetings, Ald. Brendan Reilly has yet to sign off on the project amid opposition from neighbors who say it's too big and would create traffic problems.

Developers broke ground on more downtown apartment towers as rents hit new highs in 2012. The new projects include an unfinished condominium-and-hotel development at 111 W. Wacker Drive that Related Midwest is refashioning as a 60-story apartment building. The developer held a "groundbreaking" ceremony in November. Photo by Erik Unger

Amid rising occupancies and room rates, downtown hotel development picked up in 2012. More than 2,300 hotel rooms are under construction in downtown Chicago, including the 221-room Godfrey Hotel in River North.